Answer: Proposed methods to reduce solar radiation: stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening; could rapidly reduce temperatures but does not address ocean acidification, risks termination shock, and changes regional rainfall patterns.
- A Solar geoengineering technologies are sometimes thought to have already been largely and permanently deployed at a full global operational scale by cooperating national governments as of today in general practice as frequently described
- B Proposed methods to reduce solar radiation: stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening; could rapidly reduce temperatures but does not address ocean acidification, risks termination shock, and changes regional rainfall patterns
- C Solar geoengineering is, by some accounts, functionally and mechanistically identical in every conceivable way to conventional greenhouse gas emissions mitigation strategies overall in most textbook accounts during normal conditions as generally observed
- D Solar geoengineering proposals are sometimes thought to carry little scientific, political, economic, or environmental risk to global Earth systems, according to some informal analyses in typical laboratory settings under usual circumstances
Correct answer: B. Proposed methods to reduce solar radiation: stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening; could rapidly reduce temperatures but does not address ocean acidification, risks termination shock, and changes regional rainfall patterns
Explanation: Solar Radiation Management (SRM): SAI (injecting SO<sub>2</sub> into stratosphere to form sulfate aerosols, mimicking volcanic eruptions like Pinatubo 1991 which cooled Earth ~0.5C for 1-2 years). Theoretical potential to rapidly reduce temperatures. Risks: (1) Termination shock: sudden stop → rapid warming; (2) Disrupts monsoons and precipitation patterns; (3) Does not reduce CO<sub>2</sub>/ocean acidification; (4) Ozone depletion; (5) Who controls it? No governance framework. Most climate scientists strongly prefer mitigation.
Sunlight passes through the atmosphere and warms the surface; the surface re-radiates this energy as infrared heat, which greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄, water vapour) absorb and trap - a naturally beneficial process that intensifies into global warming as gas concentrations rise from human activity.
Concept context
Pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, deforestation, and sustainability. Important for NEET and general awareness.